War of the Gods
by Jenivy
Summary: When Hextor rallies the evil deities and declares war on the immortal council, the good dieties are hard-pressed to keep their footing in the most terrible battle the world- and indeed, the universe- has ever known.
1. Lori, Eiema, and Dragons

_Author's Note:  
This is Dungeons and Dragons involving dragons from Pern. I did that in my D&D campaign and I am putting it here. Just so everyone understand. _

_**THREAD FALLS AT ISTA NORTH!**_

A terrified silence fell on the entire Weyr, but was almost instantly replaced by the rumble of movement. Riders dressed, yelled around, searched for straps; weyrlings found sacks of firestone and goldriders looked for flamethrowers. It was the pleasant rumble the usually filled the Weyr on the morning of a Fall; but today, a harried and ominous feeling hovered in the air. They could time it to catch the Fall; but still, an unpredicted Fall was cause for anyone to worry.

Talia was rushing around her room, searching for riding gear, straps, and her flamethrower. Even this goldrider was nervous and hurried. "J'li!" she yelled. "Do you have any idea-?"

"No!" replied her weyrmate, sounding just as worried as he looked for his own gear. In approximately two minutes, they had both gotten to the point of putting the straps on their dragons. Elleth and Jeriith were thoroughly agitated, eyes whirling in terrified white, angry red, and nervous yellow- all at once.

Soon the full weyr was assembled on the Rim. Weyrleader P'tral gave the signal; all three hundred dragons rose into the air silently, awaiting the cry. It came. "We fly!" the weyrleader cried.

**_"WE FLY!" _**echoed the voices of six hundred riders and dragons. **_WE FLY FOR ISTA!"_**

And the riders of Monaco Bay vanished, to assist the two thousand strong who numbered all the Weyrs of Pern.

* * *

A young girl by the name of Lori awoke from a peaceful sleep. She was leaning against the trunk of a tree, sitting on a wide branch and perfectly comfortable. Her stuff sat safely on the adjacent branch. This was perfectly normal for an Archdruid, to wake and find herself looking at a full tribe of orcs, about to coup-de-grace her friend Eiema. The girl who appeared to be a young elf, no older than Lori herself (who was only eighty or so- perhaps sixteen to a human's point of view), was in fact the daughter of a Goddess, Ehlonna. Eiema was not yet immortal, nor quite as powerful as a full Deity. She wore loose deep forest-green pants and a lighter green T-shirt. Eiema also wore arm bracers like those you would wear when using a bow; they were simply green soft stuff that Eiema liked to wear. She did use a bow, however; lying next to Eiema was a longbow and a full quiver of arrows- magic arrows, and the bow was a _+2 holy longbow._ Lori and Eiema certainly did get around. 

Lori, in similarity, wore a similar outfit, and in fact neither wore shoes, either. She had a leather belt which held two pouches in which she kept small objects, and a sash around her shoulders which normally held both the scabbard to her _+3_ _scimitar_ (which, oddly enough, had once, long ago, almost killed her in the hands of a kobold) and the quiver which was full of, not arrows, but wands. Many wands, all of which she could use. There were benefits to sorcery.

Seeing the orcs, Lori sighed. _Eiema, orcs, _she told her friend telepathically (that was her special power- several people by now had insisted she was psionic). _Will they ever give up? _

Eiema woke instantly, also sighing. _I doubt it. _With that, she grabbed the dagger that was inches from her hand for exactly that purpose and stabbed it through the heart of the closest orc. This gave time for two things:

One, Lori leapt down from the tree, and landed lightly on her feet, holding her scimitar. She grinned at the orcs, saying one thing before she charged (to their shock) into their midst: "Why do you creatures even _bother?_" Two, Eiema picked up her longbow and started arrowing the orcs methodically while Lori whacked away at them.

The orcs, who had been expecting more of an "Eeeeek!" sort of reaction, nevertheless attacked Lori with gusto. And failed miserably, for the most part, clubs bouncing off her _+5 leather armor of blending. _Lori laughed in their faces and beat the bunch, though not before getting a solid whack in the head. Eiema had helped, naturally, and both were laughing hysterically by the time the fight was over; one of the orcs had said, "You should scream."

Lori's reply had been, "No, you should." The orc, dumbfounded, had met his confused death at one of Eiema's arrows.

"Nice shot, Eiema!" Lori said enthusiastically. "You must've gotten at least half of 'em." The two were collecting Eiema's arrows back from the dead bodies, and checking for any sort of treasure. Aside from the bloody clubs, there was nothing. "Well, there goes our camping spot.." Lori commented, surveying the blood now spattered over the clearing.

Both erupted in laughter again, grinning at each other. Though highlevel and thoroughly scary, Lori and Eiema _were _still effectively teenagers, and acted it. A nineteenth-level druid, an Archdruid, was a high rank; it had, however, no age limit, and Lori had held it. She and Eiema was currently looking for Stretch, who'd gone and vanished into the forest again. It was annoying how often the monk did that, actually, but he _was _their friend.

* * *

Cold _between _blasted their skins, even through the gear. Talia shivered, as she always did, and counted the five or so seconds it would take to get from present day Monaco Bay to half-an-hour-ago Ista. She appeared, as usual, and sighed with relief at the warmth, then focused, looking for the Thread that would any minute fall from the sky, deadly silver rain that would eat a person alive. 

And she saw a cloud. Erm. Talia looked down and yelled in surprise; she was above a forest. And this was most definitely _not_ Ista. Talia looked wildly around and saw a few others. There was J'li, and Izzy, and G'hray, and H'jan, and R'rit. Six, including herself - one goldrider (her), one bronzerider (J'li), a brownrider (G'hray), two blueriders (H'jan and R'rit), and a greenrider (Izzy). "_Shards_!" she cried.

* * *

Lori and Eiema collected their stuff, not much, and set off again in search of Stretch. They got about three things at about the same time: a purple winged lizard flapped over into Lori's face, cheeping, a small note appeared in a flash of silver light, and six dragons appeared in the sky with a loud _crack_. 

"_Shards!"_ She heard someone yell. Lori looked around. She first addressed Rage, the lizard. "Yes?" The lizard dropped a piece of paper also: it read, in purple ink,

_**Stretch came back, Lori and Eiema, you guys can come back now.** _

_**-Xena**_

The other note read, in green,

_**Lori and Eiema, wait there for a moment; **_

_**Lyrai and Koly are coming to get you. We have a problem. **_

_**-Lonna**_

Those read, Lori looked at the six dragons which had appeared. They were coming down, right towards here. Lori drew a small pen from her pouch, one which wrote in blue. She wrote underneath the green note from Ehlonna:

_**So do we.**_


	2. Eiema's Ascension and Ehlonna's Stress

The note vanished again in a puff of silver smoke, at which Lori grinned. Ehlonna always did her magic well! The smile soon vanished, however, as Lori concentrated on the problem at hand. Dragons. Er- hang on. A gold and bronze, they were good, metallic dragons always were, but why was there a brown one, and why were a pair of metallics (who normally wouldn't even associate with each other, if her memory held) hanging around with a trio of chromatics? Lori stared for a moment, and that was long enough for something else to happen.

Lyrai arrived. A medium-sized (therefore, very, very large) silver dragon, she and her mate Koly swooped in over the forest and landed next to Lori and Eiema. **_"We have a problem, Lori, Hextor joined with-" _**

Lori interrupted her friend. "Lyrai, um, we have a problem too, there's dragons- and they're both kinds. And there's a brown one, don't know how that happened, and-"

_**"Lori..! What are you talking about?" **_

"Don't ask me," Lori said grimly. "But we may have some serious trouble on our hands."

"Well I am bloody well _going _to ask you!" snapped a voice from behind them. Lori spun around and found that the woman who had been riding the gold dragon was standing behind her, hands on hips. Behind her were the other five, and the six dragons were lying down calmly, though their eyes all seemed to be yellow. Odd.

Talia continued. "I just fell through bloody _between_ to fight Thread and now I'm here and don't have a sharding idea why! Will one of you weird people tell me why I just landed in what looks like Medieval Earth, with dragons who are the wrong color?"

Lori stared. "Medieval earth? _What _are you talking about? Why are you here!"

"Don't ask me!"

"Well don't ask me then!"

"I bloody well already did!"

"Well don't ask again, because I haven't the faintest idea!"

"I wasn't planning to, you rude little girl!"

"I am _not_-"

**"Shut _up,_ will you two?" **someone yelled. Both spun around to see a tall elf with flowing green hair, dressed in similar clothes to Eiema, with a longbow and quiver on her back. It was Ehlonna. **"We have a serious problem here, only one part of which is you dragonriders from some place called Monaco Bay! We do not have time for petty argument!" **

* * *

Everyone stared. For the six Pernese, it was astonishment that this woman had appeared out of nowhere, and knew who they were and where they were from. For Lori and Eiema, it was shock: neither had ever seen Ehlonna, normally a very happy and friendly sort of deity (though very busy), this angry- and worried.

Ehlonna continued, with no time for anything else. **"You six- Talia, Jelian, Gehray, Hajan, Rerit, Izzia- you are stuck for the time being, we have no time nor ability to assemble a full council and send you home. Please wait. Eiema, Lori- here is the problem. Hextor has taken control of the Evil Deities. He, Erythnul, Grummsh, Nerull, Vecna. Nerull got Wee Jas to join them, and they're halfway convincing Farlanghn and Olidammara. That's eight of the nineteen if they succeed, and Wee Jas is after Boccob, though he's firmly against her. Hextor has declared war on the Immortal Council. And eleven isn't enough to vote them out. We are about to have a War of the Gods." **

And Lori stared. Eiema gasped. "Is.. is there anything we can do?" Lori asked haltingly. "I don't know what, but- um."

**"I do not know," **said Ehlonna gravely. **"Corellon has gone to the elves, Garl to the gnomes, Moradin to the dwarves, and Yondalla to the halflings, but we are likely to not get them all. Boccob will speak to the Archmages, and Heironeous and Kord are going to rouse the churches. But even so, we may have a serious problem." **

"Have you roused the forests? The rangers? The dru- Oh damn that's my job, isn't it.." Lori blinked once. Ehlonna nodded, and before Lori could say a word, her griffons were here. Her twin griffons, Choco and Shadow, flew in over the trees, hooting like owls. As a Good druid, before that was accepted on the whole, Lori had had no chance to acquire an animal companion; instead she had Shadow and Choco, whom she had at some point _charmed _with a permanent spell. Lori did not ask how they had heard. She simply swung onto Shadow, and they left at full speed to rouse the druid society for war. Some would go to the evil gods they worshiped, but hopefully at least half the druids should be on their side.

* * *

Ehlonna spoke to her daughter. **"Eiema, dear, us remaining have made a decision. You will become a Goddess. Though eleven cannot throw the Evil Deities from the Council, we can bring you in. You are Eiema, Goddess of Druids. Use your title well." **A green glow suffused the girl, and she realized that it was true. Eiema smiled weakly, and asked her mother: "What do I do?"

**"Well, to start, I believe that these riders from whatyoucallit- Pern- need some help." **

"Okay." As Eiema turned to speak to the six riders, Ehlonna of the Forests vanished in a puff of green to rouse the rangers, the unicorns, and all the good creatures of the forests. Though she was no species Goddess, praised by most of a race, or having many high and mighty titles like Moradin, the Soul-Forger, Ehlonna was, subtly, a very powerful goddess. The creatures of the woodlands were her friends, like any druid, but infinitely more so. Unicorns, couatl, rocs, wolves. Evil and wrong this war might be, but it would be the most stunningly huge battle of the ages and planes.

Ehlonna blinked. The _planes. _That was it! How could she forget? Maybe the gods all lived in Limbo, but there were others. Hextor would undoubtedly go to the devils of the Nine Hells, and Erythnul to the demons of Pandemonium. She must get on that right away! Corellon to Ysgard, or perhaps Kord- yes, Kord. Ehlonna blinked, realizing she had just arrived. She'd landed in the middle of the temple near Amarylla. Ah, yes. Where was that confounded cleric..? Ah!

Ehlonna spotted Tarria, the high priest at this temple, sitting with the two local druids, Ara and Lina, who were sisters. They was discussing the growing of food for the temple and for Ara and Lina's animal companions, who were sitting nearby. Ehlonna cleared her throat. **"Ahem." **

All three were instantly on their feet, looking at their deity. "Is there a problem, Goddess?" inquired Ara, curious.

**"Yes. The evil deities- that is, Erythnul, Grummsh, Nerull, Vecna, and Hextor- have declared war on the Immortal Council. Not only that, Wee Jas is on their side and maybe Olidammara and Farlanghn- I really need to talk to them. We've made Eiema a full Goddess, and Lori's already out to rouse the druids since I'm busy. Corellon, Moradin, Yondalla, and Garl are off to their respective races, and Boccob's speaking to the Archmages- Lindsay, Xena, Aeril. Heironeous is off to his churches and Kord's gone to his. I need you to help. Eiema's busy with something at the moment. Ara, Lina, rouse the woodlands. Tarria, the temple. Send messages to the other temples. Someone tell Aster to collect all the good rangers he knows. I have more to do.. Clear?"**

All three nodded. Ara and Lina mounted their tiger and lion, respectively, and galloped out to search the woods for allies. Tarria spun on her heel, robe flapping, and started yelling for the priests. Ehlonna, for her part, vanished again, this time back to the council room. She sat down in her ivy-covered wood chair and rubbed her temples. Even deities could get seriously stressed in such situations. And besides, even the immortals had faults. Ehlonna's, if it could be counted a fault, was her elven-ness. She was, in all respects save her immortality, an elf with a lot of authority, magic, and responsibility.

Sigh. Ehlonna got down to work. She conjured a piece of paper and green pen and began to write.

_Celestia_

_Bytopia_

_Elysium_

_Beastlands_

_Arborea_

_Ysgard_

_Arcadia_

_Outlands_

Alright. The 8 planes to which they must send people to fetch creatures and help. Sigh again. Ehlonna though for a moment before filling in two:

_Celestia_

_Bytopia_

_Elysium_

_Beastlands Ehlonna_

_Arborea_

_Ysgard Kord_

_Arcadia_

_Outlands_

This might well take a while. She'd already decided on Kord to Ysgard, and herself to the Beastlands was pure common sense.


End file.
